Senate's Last Turn at Bat to Settle the Fate of GATT

Article excerpt

WHEN the United States Senate puts the hotly debated world trade
accord to vote today, President Clinton could gain a political
boost at home and enhanced credibility overseas by delivering on an
internationally popular treaty.

Mr. Clinton, who has personally pleaded with senators to support
the bill, has hardly had time to enjoy his boost from Tuesday's
vote in the House of Representatives, which approved the 124-nation
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) by an overwhelming
majority. Instead, the president has energetically manned his own
phones since the House vote, trying to win the Senate votes needed
to pass the trade legislation.
Opponents: unlikely allies

The White House and other GATT proponents have faced unflinching
opposition from an odd assortment of unlikely allies, including
conservative Patrick Buchanan, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, Ross
Perot, labor leaders, and environmentalists.

Workers' rights and ecology advocates have lobbied against the
GATT because of a perceived threat to American jobs from an
anticipated flood of cheap imports produced by overseas labor
operating free of environmental and other regulations. But the most
controversial aspect of the GATT has to do with GATT's arbitration
of disputes.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) - GATT's successor
organization, which is scheduled to start up by Jan. 1 - will serve
as the negotiating forum to free up trade in everything from wheat
production to telecommunications services. It has been designed to
make sure countries adhere to the new rules they've agreed to, a
task that is bound to be tough in politically prickly areas such as
textiles and farm goods.

And, under the new system, the WTO is vested with powers some US
lawmakers find objectionable: If it deems that one of the WTO's 124
member countries is violating the international agreement, the WTO
can order that country to terminate that practice. …